Saturday at the Cat Farm

We're back! Did you miss us?

We realized at the ninth hour that we were both strung out from working too hard and too much, and that adding the making of Thanksgiving Dinner to that was going to be More Work rather than a pleasant break. That being realized, we went looking for a restaurant taking reservations for Thanksgiving Dinner and found -- zip, zero, none, in Waterville. There were, however, four restaurants open on t'day for dinner in the vicinity of Old Orchard Beach. So! Having also realized that we had worked right through our anniversary, we made dinner reservations -- snagging the last two places at the table -- at the Grand Beach Inn Cafe, and found ocean front accommodations at the Sea Cliff House.

It was foggy, cool and intermittently rainy at the ocean. We did the Wednesday evening dinner at JJs Too, one of our Usual Places, and tarried to listen to the live music. Thursday, we walked, napped, did some story planning, played cards, made it to dinner (which was splendid) on time, and in general had a good rest. Yesterday morning, the nor'easter's fingers had just crept over the dunes, and we drove home in alternating bands of heavy and not-so-heavy rain. Here, the rain was heavy and wind-driven on the overnight, and has settled in to merely heavy this morning.

The cats were glad to see us; Hexampuma told us a story about the people who used to live here, who went away one day and Never Came Back, and snuggled into my lap. Mozart stretched out on the dining room table while I got my computer back online, rested his chin on my arm and purred. Scrabble had paperwork for us to go over -- but allowed as how it could wait until after she had been brushed, and the food bowls replenished.

Today is a writing day -- and tomorrow, too. I have looked at my email (of which more, possibly, later), but -- today is a writing day, and tomorrow, too.

Those who celebrate T'day -- how'd it go this year?

Everybody -- what's on deck for your weekend?

The good thing about the internet is that it allows readers and writers to interact

A couple days ago janni posted a wise and reasonable opinion on the value of readers having space to talk candidly about books with other readers, without being afraid that the writer will be looking over their shoulder.

I agree with much, and possibly all, of this post. One of the things I miss is being able to talk candidly about books here in my own blog. Alas, experience has shown that I hurt the feelings of people I know when I do that, so I don't. Readers who don't know A Lot of science fiction and fantasy writers, but who read a lot of books of which they have opinions, shouldn't have that problem, particularly.

We all know not to respond to nasty reviews -- even those which are gratuitously and specifically mean to the author -- because that's 'way more trouble than anyone wants.

But.

What about the folks who make the. . .effort, I suppose it is, to write an email to a particular author specifically to complain about an aspect of the writer's work? I'm not, note, talking about readers who want to know What Happens Next (though, really, I'm not going to tell you in an email; that's what books are for) or who have questions about plot, world building or character. All of those communications express interest and involvement in our work -- and that's a Good Thing in my view.

What I'm talking about are the folks who write to say that they find the fact that Priscilla goes topless in the privacy of her own home offensive. Or need to share that they dislike Miri because she has bad grammar. Or who are compelled to say that their least favorite books are those dealing with Val Con, because they're so violent. Clearly, these are opinions held by these readers, but am I the reasonable recipient?

My inclination has been to throw away communications like the above, unread. Certainly, an honest response is not appropriate in such cases (see "We all know not to respond to nasty reviews..." above), and it would seem that we have a case of, "If it sounds like a griefer, and disrupts like a griefer, it's a griefer."

Does anybody else get these sorts of emails? How do you deal with them?


Progress on Ghost Ship

5799 / 100000